The advent of the Internet has given rise to E-Commerce, whereby buyers and sellers may offer goods and/or services for sale, select the goods and/or services to be purchased and to consummate the sale by arranging for the payment of the services and/or goods. The Internet comprises a vast number of computers and computer networks that are interconnected through communication links. The interconnected computers exchange information using various services, such as electronic mail, Gopher, and the World Wide Web (“WWW”). The WWW service allows a server computer system (i.e., web server or web site) to send graphical web pages of information to a remote client computer system. The remote client computer system can then display the web pages. Each resource (e.g., computer or web page) of the WWW is uniquely identifiable by a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). To view a specific web page, a client computer system specifies the URL for that web page in a request (e.g. a HyperText Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) request). The request is forwarded to the web server that supports that web page. When the web server receives the request, it sends that web page to the client computer system. When the client computer system receives that web page, it typically displays the web page using a browser. A browser is a special-purpose application program that effects the requesting of web pages and the displaying of web pages.
Currently, web pages are typically composed using HyperText Markup Language (“HTML”). HTML provides a standard set of tags that define how a web page is to be displayed. When a user indicates to the browser to display a web page, the browser sends a request to the server computer system to transfer to the client computer system an HTML document that defines the web page. When the requested HTML document is received by the client computer system, the browser displays the web page as defined by the HTML document. The HTML document contains various tags that control the displaying of text, graphics, controls, and other features. The HTML document may contain URLs of other web pages available on that server computer system or other server computer systems.
The World Wide Web or Internet is especially conducive to conducting commerce, commonly referred to as E-Commerce. Web Servers have been programmed to permit vendors to provide a wide array of products and services for sale over the Internet. A user, who is a potential purchaser, may browse one or more web sites, which provide lists of products or services for sale, much like a catalogue. A purchaser may preview these lists to select a desired product or services to be purchased. When the user has completed selecting the items to be purchased, the server computer system then prompts the user to enter information to complete the ordering of the selected items. This purchase generally deals with how and where the selected items may be delivered to the purchaser and how the purchaser will pay for the selected items.
E-Commerce has also been used to facilitate the distribution and purchase of promotional items such as clothing, writing utensils, and a variety of other goods and services. Typically, a marking such as a trademark, a logo or the like phrase may be added to a selected promotional product. For example, the buyer may select from a list or catalogue of products a particular product and then insert, superimpose or otherwise attach the selected marking to the product. One of the problems associated with the distribution and sale of promotional products and/or services is the difficulty in providing a representation of the promotional product with the selected marking superimposed thereon to the perspective buyer. Before the advent of E-Commerce, a promotional products distributor would physically superimpose the selected marking on to the selected product and forward that sample product to the perspective buyer, thus permitting the perspective buyer to preview the composite image before placing an order for a quantity of such customized products.
E-commerce has permitted a service to be marketed over the Internet that involves the superimposing of one image on another to permit the prospective purchaser to preview the composite image before buying. TOMAX USA.com (www.tomaxusa.com/e-sample/) is an example of such a service, where a second image of a logo of a business, a company or an athletic team for example may by superimposed on a first image in the form of promotion merchandize such as a watch, clock, calculators or other electronics. Initially, a second image logo is forwarded to TOMAX. The logo may be in the form of a photograph, e.g., a black and white color separated artwork of the logo, and, in that form, would be forwarded by mail to TOMAX. Alternatively, the logo may be scanned and converted to a digital signal, before being formatted by Adobe Illustrator into an EPS format or by Adobe PhotoShop; the formatted signals are then transmitted to TOMAX USA.com. If E-mailed, an indication of the PMS color also needs to be transmitted to permit the logo to be reproduced at the processing site in its precise colors. At the processing site, the received image of the logo is converted back to a hard copy, before it is assembled with the selected promotional product and a photograph of the logo superimposed on the product is taken. In turn, the photograph is scanned and the converted, and the rasterized image is transmitted as an E-mail attachment to the user's browser, where it may be previewed. TOMAX USA indicates that the superimposing process will require 60 hours or perhaps less, depending on workload. In addition, a security code number is transmitted with the superimposed image to the purchaser, while the superimposed image is also uploaded to the web site of TOMAX USA. The purchaser may use that security code to access on line the superimposed image from TOMAX USA's web site. Similarly, the purchaser may give that security code to another person, a customer of the purchaser for example, whereby the customer may also view the superimposed image from this web site. A drawback to the technique described above is that the superimposing is performed photographically and, as a result, requires a significant amount of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,334,853, assigned to the same assignee of this invention, describes an E-Commerce system comprising a client's system for one or more potential buyers, and at least one server to support the client's system or systems. The server includes at least first and second libraries for respectively storing first images of promotional goods, products and/or services, and markings, e.g., logos, trademarks or the like. The server is programmed to construct a first web page with a description of at least one of the promotional products, and a second web page with a description and/or an image of the marking to be superimposed on a product. The first and second web pages are downloaded to the client system, whereby the perspective buyer may browse the offered products and select one of the promotional products and one of the markings to be superimposed upon the selected product to provide a composite image. The composite image is in turn embedded in a third web page, which is downloaded to the client system, whereby the composite image may be displayed upon the client's system and the perspective buyer may preview the composite image before purchasing.
International Patent Publication No. WO 01/23989 describes an E-Commerce system for distributing promotional products, which may be used by the following entities: 1) a user (e.g., customer or buyer); 2) a distributor who may control the server; and 3) a supplier of the promotional goods and/or services. The distributor uses icons to display the promotional items, which are included in a view and sent to a user. By activating one of these icons, the user sends to the distributor a signal to display the different styles of the promotional products. The supplier may pay an additional fee to the distributor to have its promotional products more prominently displayed so that a user would be more inclined to order it. Further, the distributor can determine which supplier or suppliers will provide a particular promotional product. Further, a user sends to the receiver an order that includes an electronic file comprised of the promotional product and a marking. Then, the distributor combines the promotional item with the marking to create a representation of how the marking should appear on the promotional product. If the user has a further interest in the displayed promotional item, the user sends to the distributor a signal to display further information about the promotional product. Further, the distributor can determine which supplier or suppliers will provide a promotional product at a particular icon. If the user wishes to order a particular product it will input further details of the particular promotional product. As such details are input by the user, they are sent to the receiver, whereby the user can see how prices are changing as information is changed. In particular, the screen includes a view of a quantity section with various quantity levels that correspond to various prices. When the user determines the quantity of a particular promotional item that he or she desires, he or she will enter the proper quantity into the system. After the user has provided its authorization to the distributor, the distributor in turn sends order information to the supplier. Maintenance of the database used for a promotional items web site can be performed in part by the distributor, the supplier or both. Typically, the distributor will control the database but may allow limited access to the supplier. Both the distributor and the supplier may send an electronic signal to add or remove items from the database. When the order is placed, the distributor sends appropriate information to the suppliers. However, the user may not even know that different suppliers are being used. Because the ordering can be done over the Internet, it allows the order to move more quickly and be processed by the supplier.
The above identified International Publication notes the difficulty in facilitating a purchaser to find a particular promotional product due to the number of suppliers and promotional items that are available. Typically there are a large number of distributors and an even larger number of promotional items. Each distributor has at least one catalogue listing products and/or services which are selected by a distributor from a supplier and incorporated into the distributor's catalogue.
Various economic models are employed to compensate the various entities for their participation in the distribution and sale of promotional products and/or goods. One of the most common economic models is to permit the distributor to provide a mark up of the supplier's price; typically, such mark up may be fifty or more percent of the supplier's price, thus resulting in a significant increase in the price to a buyer. In the above noted International Application, there is described a system involving the buyer, the distributor, the supplier and an intermediary. The supplier and distributor in such a system can pay a commission or other fees to the intermediary based on the use (monitored by hits or central processing unit time) or by orders made using the system. In another embodiment, order information is sent to the distributor and the supplier. Alternatively, financial information for the order is sent by the intermediary to the supplier. When consideration is received by the supplier from the buyer, the supplier keeps it's share and pays a portion of the consideration to the distributor and another portion to the intermediary.